I have an English degree and this one kills me. It's especially bad when people use the "word" loosed. That and "can not" which is not technically incorrect, but just ignorant. I could vent on dozens more...

The thing about an English degree is that in a few hundred years it will be worthless while a math degree will still be going strong .

I think that English degree does not mean what you think it means.

I think you may be correct in general but not in this specific case where it seems like someone got a degree in instantaneously current spelling and grammar .

(also one should keep in mind that many people post here while watching TV, or while at work or otherwise distracted and just zip out a quick response without much and it can be easy to have the sounds in your head and slop out there for their or they're and so on, plenty of times the mistakes are random and consistent)

For me English is a fourth language and the way it is used in my country, as long as you understand what the speaker / poster is trying to convey, it is usually enough.

Canonrumors is a forum where the users are spread all across the world - some with good English and some with not so good English. I feel that there should be some leeway as long as one can understand what a poster is trying to convey. That said, I've seen many native English speakers who have worse English language skills than myself

I would bet that nobody is going to stop posting on the forum simply because they did not know the nuance of a language.

Canonrumors is a forum where the users are spread all across the world - some with good English and some with not so good English. I feel that there should be some leeway as long as one can understand what a poster is trying to convey. That said, I've seen many native English speakers who have worse English language skills than myself

What I'd add to this is that I have all the time in the world for those learning the language, but those who should know better, should.

Lose/Loose. I also notice this one a lot. The other one that really bugs me is using 'lead' (as in heavy metal) for the past tense or past participle of 'lead' instead of 'led'. Even BBC journalists get this one wrong fairly often and I find myself having to write to them yet again.

I'm surprised to see nobody has mentioned the bought brought mixup yet. That might be a London thing, as I meet a lot of Londoners in my office. I cannot understand how one mixes those words up. "I brought a new car" Didn't the car bring you?

I'm Dutch, so English is only spoken on the television here. And at Starbucks, I still don't get that one. There are a lot of words difficult for me. Especially words that do or do not have a lot of TH combinations in there. I still cant figure out what to use when.

I'm never offended when I'm corrected. Even if its in a bit of a tone. I might be an native English speaker messing up the grammar.

(Full disclosure: spell check helped me capitalise English and Starbucks put an apostrophe in don't and change grammer to grammar)

The British English usage is the ending "ice" for the noun and "ise" for the verb. E.g., I would advise you that the advice is to practise the practice of grammar. Americans use "ise" in all cases.

Sorry to disagree, but I am an American, and I was taught the correct usage of each in school.

Alan...I think you meant to write that Americans use "ice" not "ise" for the word practice. (I'm from the US) Americans always use practice, not practise. (Even as I tried to write practise the spellcheck keeps trying to correct me). I wonder if the spellcheck does that if you live in the UK?

DJL...Americans never use the word "practise"...so in the US there would be no "correct usage" of each...unless you mean that it would be correct to use "practise" when communicating with a Brit.

Many of us English monoglots admire greatly the non-English speakers' ability to write in our language. There is one misspelling, however, that is becoming the norm in CR: loose for lose. "Loose", with two os means the opposite of tight. E.g., my lens cap is loose and sometimes falls off. The verb you use when you can't find something is "lose", with one o. E.g., I will lose my lens cap if it becomes loose and falls off.

My own complaints are from a broader pop culture context. I cannot stand misuse of "to" and "too". Or how about referring to one lady as a "women". Or how about things that "rock" (usually shoes, a skirt, or a purse)...instead of things that should rock, like music?

I also absolutely hate all the new Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry songs. I really don't think it's just me. Their voices have gotten much worse, and the songs themselves are grotesque to the point of absurdity. Miley's voice sounds like a bullfrog got drunk and then heavily hung over the next morning, and is now attempting to do its best impression of Stevie Nicks, after Nicks smokes an entire field of tobacco...and then Nicks herself is for some insane reason...trying to attempt to mate with a bullfrog. Imagine such a scenario if you will!

I can see why neither one of them can keep a man for very long! A woman's voice needs to be at least somewhat pleasant to listen to on a day-to-day basis! Yet we are barraged with their music. ENOUGH...bring back "hair metal"..."new wave"..."punk"...even "grunge rock" at its most depressing...or EVEN PURE 70's DISCO would be far better than the current, complete crap the kids listen to today. Don't even get me started on "country" or "rap"...!! And as much as Madonna is widely ridiculed now, in her prime, her music was far better than the best of the best music, since 2000 or so. At least she worked hard (in between escapades with the likes of dennis rodman-types), and co-wrote much of her own music. Perry and Miley obviously had a lot of input on writing their own current material, because it sucks! Their earlier hits apparently had much stronger influence from songwriters who knew what they were doing.

At least someone like "Ke$ha" admits that she and her family are "bat$*** crazy", capitalizes on it, and doesn't pretend her style is the "norm". But what's scary is, it kind of is becoming the norm! What sort of Halloween costume would Ke$ha wear? Boggles the mind.

For me, singers like Miley Cyrus sell their image and not their music. Today the clip of the song is more viral than the music itself. In the music video of Miley Cyrus "wrecking ball" she appears naked on a wrecking ball. Very hot girl, but very bad music. On the other hand the great band INTERPOL has a song with the same name "wrecking ball" that is simply wonderful. Search on Youtube "wrecking ball-Miley Cyrus" by the sexy image, and "wrecking ball-INTERPOL" by the great music.

Thanks for the suggestion and your thoughts! You're correct the image sells more than the music...so why does there need to be "music" at all in her case? Certainly since the early '80's and MTV, the video was always more important than the music itself...so that's nothing new. I've seen the video, I wasn't overly impressed. In my opinion Miley is lacking in the upper body area a bit much to be called "hot"...also she's a bit too lean and stringy for my taste (she lacks muscle size along with that rounded smoothness that many men like a lady to have...some men like women to look like little skinny boys, but I don't. Hugging women like that, feels like you're hugging a young boy who runs track or something...wow is that a turnoff!). Again, just hearing her voice speak is enough to give me "low t", let alone that "singing" that sounds kind of like a chorus of belt sanders grinding away at a doorknob. And you didn't mention Katy Perry. Nowadays in "pop culture", the worst thing you can ever be thought of as...is an "adult". Perry is soon to hit 30 years old, yet she seems to have a baby girl complex where she likes to appear in pigtails. It's kind of not age appropriate for her anymore...perhaps when she hits 40 or 50 she'll outgrow it. But based on her current music, nobody will remember her or anything she's ever done, by the time she hits 32. "Roar" is just pure garbage...That's the difference between these two "stars", and Madonna...her best music will always stand the test of time.

Many of us English monoglots admire greatly the non-English speakers' ability to write in our language. There is one misspelling, however, that is becoming the norm in CR: loose for lose. "Loose", with two os means the opposite of tight. E.g., my lens cap is loose and sometimes falls off. The verb you use when you can't find something is "lose", with one o. E.g., I will lose my lens cap if it becomes loose and falls off.

My own complaints are from a broader pop culture context. I cannot stand misuse of "to" and "too". Or how about referring to one lady as a "women". Or how about things that "rock" (usually shoes, a skirt, or a purse)...instead of things that should rock, like music?

I also absolutely hate all the new Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry songs. I really don't think it's just me. Their voices have gotten much worse, and the songs themselves are grotesque to the point of absurdity. Miley's voice sounds like a bullfrog got drunk and then heavily hung over the next morning, and is now attempting to do its best impression of Stevie Nicks, after Nicks smokes an entire field of tobacco...and then Nicks herself is for some insane reason...trying to attempt to mate with a bullfrog. Imagine such a scenario if you will!

I can see why neither one of them can keep a man for very long! A woman's voice needs to be at least somewhat pleasant to listen to on a day-to-day basis! Yet we are barraged with their music. ENOUGH...bring back "hair metal"..."new wave"..."punk"...even "grunge rock" at its most depressing...or EVEN PURE 70's DISCO would be far better than the current, complete crap the kids listen to today. Don't even get me started on "country" or "rap"...!! And as much as Madonna is widely ridiculed now, in her prime, her music was far better than the best of the best music, since 2000 or so. At least she worked hard (in between escapades with the likes of dennis rodman-types), and co-wrote much of her own music. Perry and Miley obviously had a lot of input on writing their own current material, because it sucks! Their earlier hits apparently had much stronger influence from songwriters who knew what they were doing.

At least someone like "Ke$ha" admits that she and her family are "bat$*** crazy", capitalizes on it, and doesn't pretend her style is the "norm". But what's scary is, it kind of is becoming the norm! What sort of Halloween costume would Ke$ha wear? Boggles the mind.

For me, singers like Miley Cyrus sell their image and not their music. Today the clip of the song is more viral than the music itself. In the music video of Miley Cyrus "wrecking ball" she appears naked on a wrecking ball. Very hot girl, but very bad music. On the other hand the great band INTERPOL has a song with the same name "wrecking ball" that is simply wonderful. Search on Youtube "wrecking ball-Miley Cyrus" by the sexy image, and "wrecking ball-INTERPOL" by the great music.

Thanks for the suggestion and your thoughts! You're correct the image sells more than the music...so why does there need to be "music" at all in her case? Certainly since the early '80's and MTV, the video was always more important than the music itself...so that's nothing new. I've seen the video, I wasn't overly impressed. In my opinion Miley is lacking in the upper body area a bit much to be called "hot"...also she's a bit too lean and stringy for my taste (she lacks muscle size along with that rounded smoothness that many men like a lady to have...some men like women to look like little skinny boys, but I don't. Hugging women like that, feels like you're hugging a young boy who runs track or something...wow is that a turnoff!). Again, just hearing her voice speak is enough to give me "low t", let alone that "singing" that sounds kind of like a chorus of belt sanders grinding away at a doorknob. And you didn't mention Katy Perry. Nowadays in "pop culture", the worst thing you can ever be thought of as...is an "adult". Perry is soon to hit 30 years old, yet she seems to have a baby girl complex where she likes to appear in pigtails. It's kind of not age appropriate for her anymore...perhaps when she hits 40 or 50 she'll outgrow it. But based on her current music, nobody will remember her or anything she's ever done, by the time she hits 32. "Roar" is just pure garbage...That's the difference between these two "stars", and Madonna...her best music will always stand the test of time.

I am confused now;This thread went from lose or loose to just loose women.

I am confused now;This thread went from lose or loose to just loose women.

Haha, not really...I just felt like complaining about pop culture. Not trying to hijack the thread. There are plenty of grammatical errors I still don't like, but at the moment I don't have time to list any others. I really also don't like many of the popular sayings and phrases that are said so often these days.

Here's one: "at the end of the day"....as in..."At the end of the day the President felt he needed to focus more on how much of the taxpayers' money he's wasting by constantly taking air force one all over the globe at his every whim, while at the same time preaching about how much man-made pollution contributes to climate change...and how he would be happy to be exempted from his own carbon tax proposals...because that's just how he rolls. We're happy that you in the white house press corps never challenge him on these issues. This concludes the news conference."

It's one of those phrases that is said constantly by commentators and officials on news tv broadcasts, and it's now the end of the day for that phrase, in my opinion!

I am confused now;This thread went from lose or loose to just loose women.

Haha, not really...I just felt like complaining about pop culture. Not trying to hijack the thread. There are plenty of grammatical errors I still don't like, but at the moment I don't have time to list any others. I really also don't like many of the popular sayings and phrases that are said so often these days.

Here's one: "at the end of the day"....as in..."At the end of the day the President felt he needed to focus more on how much of the taxpayers' money he's wasting by constantly taking air force one all over the globe at his every whim, while at the same time preaching about how much man-made pollution contributes to climate change...and how he would be happy to be exempted from his own carbon tax proposals...because that's just how he rolls. We're happy that you in the white house press corps never challenge him on these issues. This concludes the news conference."

It's one of those phrases that is said constantly by commentators and officials on news tv broadcasts, and it's now the end of the day for that phrase, in my opinion!

Yes they do say that. Thanks for pointing it out, now when I hear the phrase it will annoy me to.